Within the Probabilities of Spelling
81 excerpts from the writings of Rosmarie Waldrop, printed letterpress in an edition of 18.
“The images began as the essay on probability in the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. I scanned segments of the essay into photoshop and distorted them in various directions to create a series of textured background tiles. I then created a sequence of 21 different shapes which I filled in with these textured backgrounds. Each individual shape represents a consonant (the images on the left, for example, represent the letters t and h). The sequence of images on the page thus spell a word on its respective (or irrespective page). The idea was not to challenge readers to decipher the images as text. Rather by allowing for a somewhat more random means of generating the images, I hoped to multiply the probabilities of spellings within.”
￼Printed by Karen Randall at Wild Carrot Letterpress in Hadley, MA. Extruded encyclopedic probability images rendered into polymer by Boxcar Press in Syracuse, NY. Text paper is Zerkall Copperplate. Ehrhardt type cast by Julia Ferrari & Dan Carr at Golgonooza in Ashuelot, NH. The box by Mark Tomlinson of Easthampton, MA